Brig
by outerelf
Summary: Whatever did Red Alert do to land himself in the brig? Well, the Ark is about to find out-
1. Chapter 1

I got this off of DarkAngelLillith's fic 'Doing Time' where Prowl got thrown in the brig, and I wanted to see if I could write how Red Alert got thrown in the brig. In this story when it has: Ff, it means flashback (because of the very long flashback scenes, and the fact that the stupid line divider doesn't work on my computer for some reason. Sorry.

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"Do you think Red Alert ever got thrown in the brig?" Sideswipe asked throughfully, to Sunstreaker.

Sunstreaker set down the data pad he had been scribbling on, staring at his brother. "Are you getting stupider? There is no way Red Alert could of ever gone to the brig. Look at him!"

Jazz said thoughtfully, "I don't know, anyone can be sent to the brig for any reason. But I'll have to agree with you here, Red Alert defiantly has never gone to the brig."

This statement caused an all out verbal battle, trying to decide what would happen in order to send Red Alert to the brig.

Prowl passed by, Red Alert and Ratchet in tow, talking quietly about cutting back on some of the appliances. Red Alert watched them shout at each other, his puzzlement growing deeper and deeper. "Inferno, what's going on?"

Inferno blushed slightly, shuffling his feet. "They wanted to know whether or not you're ever been to the brig."

The large group of mechs gathered fell silent, waiting for Red Alerts answer. Red Alert stared at Inferno, then turned to Prowl, who quickly fled. "Yes, I have gone to the brig once."

Jaws dropped. No one had really expected Red Alert to say he had been to the brig- "What, how, why, who?" Inferno asked, his voice strangled.

Red Alert looked back, optic ridge cocked. "I believe that Prowl would be better able to answer, seeming how he was the one who threw me in their, but I suppose if one of you go hunt him down, I can tell the rest what I know."

They gathered around him like younglings for a bedtime story. "It was before I came aboard the Ark, and I was about to be transferred. Prime, Prowl, Ratchet, and Ironhide had popped a surprise visit upon the installation in which I was currently working-"

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Prime looked up at the nearly twenty-story building. It was abandoned, in disrepair, but still used sometimes. Prowl looked at it, "Are you sure this is safe?" He muttered, looking at it.

Prowl nodded. "Theirs a 10 percent chance that something will go wrong. However that ten percent comes from the idea that assassins or Decepticons may be hiding in the building."

Primes optic ridge rose, but he strode into the building to check it out. Prowl fretted at the bottom, along with Ironhide and Ratchet. Everything went fine and suddenly – BOOM! Prowl flinched as fire appeared on the tenth floor, rapidly eating its way down. Primes voice came over the comm. link Prowl held in one hand, "I'm caught by the fire!"

Prowls CPU struggled to keep online, as his logic chips became slightly overloaded. Shouts rose from behind him, and suddenly a hand plucked the link out of Prowls limp hand and a voice, smooth and calm, snapped, "Describe where you're at."

"…What?"

"You heard me you idiotic mech, describe where you're at!" The Lamborghini snarled, leaning over Prowl to type commands into a computer. A 3D version of the building appeared on the screen, as Prime described where he was at.

"Very good, you must be on level eleven. The lift was damaged, and can only go down, but it's currently stuck on level eight. You'll have to go through the fire. Now, off to your right there should be a door-"

Calmly the mech guided Prime through the endless breems that slowly trickled past. Prowl got his CPU working, and ordered everyone back, clearing a wide circle, and constructing a small obstruction around the mystery mech who guided Prime. Primes cracked, exhausted voice said, "No good, fire is blocking the doorway, and its sealed shut-"

"No, it's not. That would be a trick of your optics," The mech said, glaring at the link.

Primes defeated voice said, "I can't go through, I'll be melted in five seconds-"

"LOOK HERE you idiotic, pit-spawned son of a glitch." The mech snarled, quiet suddenly loosing his cool, "If you even dare _think_ about not going through that doorway, so help me I will track down every single security director you have ever had, coerce them into giving me the recordings of the video tapes, and publish every single embarrassing thing you have done since you got into the army-"

Prime was about to say something, when the mech brutally cut him off. "Furthermore, if you're brand new, I'll go to your creators, and don't think I won't, and bribe them into sharing stories."

"It won't help if I'm dead-" Prime said, struggling to get a measure of this mech. It had been a long time since he had been threatened by an obvious underling. Prowl, Ratchet, and Ironhide were more of his equals, and they had no compunction about threatening him if they felt like he felt it.

The mech swore at him in some of the most colorful language Prime had ever heard. "You're not going to die on my watch, on my base! Now, get through that door, or do I have to go up their myself and drag you through!"

Prime wearily got ready to run, optics burning from the smoke. The mech heard the hydraulics coiling from across the link, and sighed in relief, masking the sound. "Alright, as soon as you get through the door, tell me, so I can seal it up behind you."

Prime rushed through the fire, heat searing and licking up around is body, singing more then one important part. His CPU cooked a little, making him go slightly off balance. "I'm through." Prime croaked, and watched as the doors slammed shut behind him. Heat still radiated from behind the door, and Prime stumbled away, optics unfocused.

"Can you still understand me?"

"Yes. But, I can't keep moving." Prime said, standing still. He really couldn't, he was in such agony.

"I see." Came back the mocking tone. "I see what pitiful mechs they have in the army now. You spineless coward, you finally got out of the worst of the fire, and you can no longer move? Oh, how pitiful. Maybe I won't have to publish you most embarrassing parts of your life, you're going to die right their, just because you gave up too soon."

Anger kindled within Prime, and grimly he forced himself to move, as Prowl looked at the mech. As the clear, strong, angry voice of Prime came across, Prowl saw the gratitude and relief that flashed across the mechs face. "Alright, I'm moving. What do I do now?"

The mechs voice became soft as he guided Prime through the rest of the building. When Prime got to the very end of the second floor, he asked, "Who are you?"

"Red Alert, security director."

"Really, I've never heard of you before." Prime said fuzzily, as Ironhide, made a slight motion at Prowl, who nodded. "Are you any good?"

"Currently, as far as I know, I am the only one to of survived the terrors known as Sideswipe and Sunstreaker." Red Alert said, optics offlining for a moment. "Those two, I hope to never see their faces again."

Prime chuckled weakly. "I would say the same if they weren't so important."

Red Alert snorted, and turned to hand off the link to Prowl. And stopped. "You're- you're the second in command!" Red Alert whispered, optics wide.

Prowl nodded. He had guessed that Red Alert didn't recognize Primes voice, and since Red Alert hadn't been paying attention, he had no idea that he had been guiding the leader of the Autobots out. "Wait, if you're Prowl, then this is-"

"Yes, that's Prime." Red Alert looked floored. Prowl smirked slightly. "And, considering the fact that you are a security director, have survived the twins, and rescued Prime, despite not knowing who he was, you're going to be the next-"

"NO! I've heard horror stories about that already! Despite the Ark having only been in existence for half a vorn, you've gone through twenty security directors already! Absolutely not!"

Prowl looked behind Red Alert, to where Ratchet stood, one hand on a large wrench. He nodded, and Ratchets hand rose and came down with unsurprising strength.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Red Alert awoke slowly, groaning. One moment he had been talking to the second-in-command, the next he was- where? Blearily Red Alert forced his optics on, and glanced around. And wished he hadn't. The second-in-command of the army was sitting next to him. "I told you already, I don't want to be security director!"

Prowl replied calmly. "Unfortunately you have no choice. We blasted off from the planet about two orns ago. Currently you're in the brig, and you'll continue to stay here until you agree."

"Great, I've been kidnapped." Red Alert grumbled.

Prowl stood up, leaving behind several data-pads. "Here is information about the duties you'll be taking on, I suggest you read it."

Prowl left, leaving Red Alert alone. _My glitch complains about decepticons kidnapping me._ Red Alert thought, the irony of the situation almost making him laugh. _Instead I'm kidnapped by my own faction._

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Dead silence had fallen across the Arks crew as they gaped at Red Alert. "So, you spent the entire time since we landed on that planet until we got to the next planet in the brig?"

Red Alert nodded, just as Prowl was dragged back. "Yes, Red Alert did spend the entire time in the brig. He refused until the last day."

"If I had known that I just needed to wait one day more, I wouldn't of agreed." Red Alert snarled. "I was perfectly _sane_ before I got on the Ark!"

"No you weren't."

Red Alert glared at the crew, the mech who had spoken up lost in the sea of bodies. "So was that why you were so mad when you first got on the Ark?"

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Red Alert sighed, he was bored out of his skull, having already memorized the pads and their content. Prowl visited once a recharge cycle, asking him if he had changed his mind- Red Alert wasn't sure why he was hesitating to take this job. It would be a big step up, but having been conked unconscious and then hauled to the Ark forcibly-

Red Alert groaned, flipping on his side and curling up on the recharge bunk. Prowl appeared, right on time. "Can I have something else to do? I already memorized everything on these pads."

Red Alert missed the slightly surprised look that entered into Prowls optics. "Oh really?"

"Do you want me to recite line for line? I assure you I can, I've been that bored." Red Alert said sarcastically.

"Aren't security mechs supposed to be bored-"

"Only if they aren't paying attention! If they would pay attention then they would find their jobs a whole lot more interesting." Red Alert said, not bothering to turn to Prowl.

"Well, I would if you'd agree-"

"FINE! I give up! It's clear that even if we did land you'd still force me to be security directtor anyways!" Red Alert said, exasperated. "When can I get out of here?"

"Tomorrow we're setting down on planet. We'll claim that we recruited you there." Prowl said smugly.

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All heads in the crew turned to Prowl, who simply nodded. "Well, you have to admit that his fury certainly did lend a presence to when he came aboard the Ark."

The mechs winced at the thought, as a human piped up, "What do you mean, what happened?"

The mechs exchanged looks, and pointed back at Red Alert. "He can explain the best. He was the one who did it all."

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Yes, I will (for once) write the reactions and things Red Alert did the second he gained command. That'll be the second chapter.

Honestly, this fic went in a completely different direction then what I had originally planned. I had wanted Prime to be stuck inside, and Red Alert do something heroic, but Red Alert just roared at Prime to move his sorry aft into gear, and it worked.

The idea of Red Alert being kidnapped into service, I have to say, came of my own convoluted thought process.


	2. Chapter 2

_Haha! Second chapter, as promised! And I'm glad to hear that so many liked the idea that Red Alert had to be kidnapped into service. _

--

"Lets, see, it was a rather bright day, and Prowl had just called everyone into order-" Red Alert said, thinking back on that fateful day-

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Prowl gave Red Alert the bag of weights without a question. He had no idea why Red Alert needed it, but Red Alert had said something about his grand entrance, and Prowl was willing to leave it at that. So he walked out to start bringing the crew into attention.

The crew muttered and grumbled as Prowl called them to order. "We have a new security director, and I believe-"

SMASH! Sunstreaker went down as a well-thrown bag of weights was thrown in his face. "Sunstreaker!" Came the angry bark, "How many times have I told you to pay attention to these meetings?"

Total silence fell across the crew as a mech many of them had never seen before, only heard about, strode into view, fuming. Sideswipe looked up, otpics wide. "Red Alert! But I thought-"

"I thought I wouldn't have to deal with you as well." Red Alert said, standing on the slightly raised platform. Prowl turned to look at Red Alert, who surveyed the crew with a practiced optic. Jazz, brand new to Red Alert, asked, "Who are you?"

"Red Alert, your new security director. I've heard a lot of stories about the Ark, which indicates I'm going have to take some harsh measures with you all, so I'm going to do a through sweep in exactly an orn. I suggest you hide anything you don't want confiscated."

Nobody moved as Sunstreaker struggled to his feet. Red Alerts optics narrowed, as he snarled, "NOW!"

The twins fled, quickly paging to the entire crew, explaining to them that Red Alert would be more then willing to do so.

Red Alert strode up to where Prowl had originally been planning on giving his speech, asking, "Is this connected to the entire Ark?"

Prowl nodded, stepping back. Red Alert took Prowls place, saying, "Now, for an added bonus as you clean up, I'll now tell you what I plan on doing. First, I'm going to go through every single personal item you have-"

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(_Back in present Day_) The twins shuddered at the memory, "He did too. Clean up everything. You should've seen all the stuff that he confiscated. It filled up nearly an entire room! Of course, we quickly found out that Red Alert was much, much stronger then he looks."

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(_On the Ark_) Red Alert stared narrowly at the furious mech who refused to give up his contraband without a fight. "You have either three clicks to step down Or I'll haul you to the brig myself." Red Alert said flatly.

The mech smirked. He had heard that hollow proclamation too many times to believe Red Alert, although he'd regret his action later.

"No."

In movements so fast, no one was quiet sure what had happened, Red Alert had floored the mech and snapped his hands into handcuffs behind the mechs back. "Alright, now what will it be, I drag you out by the tail pipe, or you'll get up and walk?" Red Alert asked, one optic ridge cocked.

The mech hesitated, until he saw the twins gesturing for him to get up. Defeated, he got up and Red Alert dragged him down to the brig, much to the stunned surprise of the crew.

"This guy is very different from our last victims." Jazz muttered to the twins.

"Yeah, we won't get rid of him anytime soon." Sideswipe predicted gloomily. "He's been our security director for _vorns_ now, and he still hasn't quit."

"We'll see." Jazz said comfortably. "After all, think of the Dynobots-"

Grimlocks voice floated down the hallway. "Yes, we will listen to Red Alert."

Jazz's jaw dropped.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Red Alert paused in the doorway of one room, optics taking the hastily cleaned up room. A back was too him as a distinct muttering sounded, "Why is everyone so frantic to clean up their rooms?"

Red Alert cleared his vocalizer, and smirked inwardly as the mech nearly pitched foreword in surprise. "That's because as the new security director I'll be making a sweep for any contraband materials."

The mech turned around, completely driving Red Alerts breath away from the pure, easiness of the smile. For some unexplainable reason he could feel himself blushing. Quickly he covered it up by saying, "You weren't at the meeting where Prowl introduced me."

"Nah, I was busy cleaning out the brigs on order of Prowl who has been itching to send me down there for cycles now. Wonder shy he didn't…" the mech trailed off, and in some small part of Red Alerts CPU noticed that the mech only had one hand. The other was a cannon/nozzle to put out fires or blast decepticons.

_The twins are not going to drive me away yet._ Red Alert thought, optics evaluating the fire-truck. Inferno shifted uncomfortably, and Red Alert realized how he must look.

He was leaning against the doorframe casually, data-pad in one hand, just staring. His face completely expressionless, he would scare the CPU out of a normal soldier. "Hmm," Red Alert said, doing a quick, almost half-hearted probe into Inferno's room. Many of the items were rather personal, making Red Alert slightly uneasy. When he was done, he nodded and withdrew from Infernos presence.

Inferno was left staring at empty air. "Well, he was an unusual one. I wonder if he's going to last any longer then the last?" Somewhere deep in his spark Inferno sincerely hoped so, because the new security director had the promising looks of someone who could double up with him as a search and rescue team…

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Red Alert paused, optics lost in thoughts, and the human leaned close to Bumblebee, "What did Red Alert do to get the dynobots to listen to him?"

"No one knows, it's his own little secret."

Red Alert smiled inwardly. It hadn't been hard, really. All they needed was some clear set rules and the reason _why_ those rules were to be obeyed. After you got through with that, then the Dynobots were actually a very helpful lot.

Inferno sidled up to him. "So, what did you do?"

"Do you mean with everything I confiscated? I sold it for an enormous profit of course. Law 5-32228 says I can do that."

Prowl nodded, head tilting. Then, a thought occurred to the humans. "Wait, what happened after the cleaning?"

"Red Alert went through and completely remodeled the cameras, making them twice as hard to blow up or get tampered with." Jazz explained.

Prime entered at that moment, looking around the large crowd. 'What's going on here?"

"Prime, what did you think when you first saw Red Alert?"

Prime thought back, and said slowly, "When he first came through the door, I thought he was taller then me. He just held that furious power so easily. I knew at once that he was someone who could handle the job and the twins-" Red Alert blushed at the praise that Prime bestowed on him, drawing a scowl from Inferno.

Prowls smirk grew slightly. "Red Alert was furious for vorns afterwards. I remember getting reports that had lots of unneeded detail that had no point in the case in and of itself in a bid to make me crash."

"Nonsense. If I wanted you to crash I would've thrown in my conspiracy theories." Red Alert murmured, optics glinting in the light. "Anyway, the past is done. I'm here, aren't I?"

"Why didn't you?"

"Hmmm?"

"Why didn't you ever run off?"

"I was too busy. Watching the Ark is like watching sparklings. Take your optics off for a moment, and a fight breaks out. Speaking of fights-" Red Alert vanished, moving to intercept the fight that would probably be brewing between Grimlock and Blaster. Blasters quarters were unfortunately close to the dynobots.

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Short, waaaay too short, but I only know a handful of mechs. So it was a hard chapter to write, and I'm sorry if I didn't include your favorite mech or group of mechs


End file.
